Product Description: A remarkable array of people have been called shamans, while the phenomena identified as shamanism continues to proliferate. This second edition of the Historical Dictionary of Shamanism contains with examples from antiquity up to today, and from Siberia (where the term “shaman” originated) to Amazonia, South Africa, Chicago and many other places...read more

Product Description: Despite constant hindrance from government interference and control, the Russian theater has produced many memorable playwrights, schools of thought, and plays, whose influence can be seen throughout the world. Nikolai Gogol''s The Inspector, Maksim Gor'kii's The Lower Depths, and Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard remain staples of repertories in every language...read more

Situated in the breathtaking Caucasus Mountains between the Black and the Caspian Seas, the country of Georgia sits at the crossroads between Europe and Asia; it has gone through more turbulence and change in the last 15 years―the casting off of the Soviet regime, a civil war, two ethno-territorial conflicts, economic collapse, corruption, government inefficiency, and massive emigration―than most countries go through in 150 years. However, despite all its hardships, this resilient and ancient country, with thousands of years of winemaking, three-thousand years of statehood, and almost two millennia of Christianity, continues to survive, and with the new government's reforms, promises to improve.Scholar Alexander Mikaberidze has created an invaluable source on the long and turbulent history of Georgia. The Historical Dictionary of Georgia, through its chronology, glossary, introduction, appendixes, maps, bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on important persons, places, events, and institutions and significant political, economic, social, and cultural aspects, traces Georgia's history and provides a compass for the direction the country is heading.

Product Description: The Historical Dictionary of Heidegger's Philosophy is the first encyclopedic dictionary devoted to the life and work of this famous and influential German philosopher. It includes explanatory abstracts for his most important writings and critical discussion of his most obscure concepts...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: The 1980s and early 1990s were remarkable for the triumph of conservatism in the United States and its closest allies. The victories of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush in the United States were complemented by the electoral successes of Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom and Brian Mulroney in Canada...read more

The current state of affairs between the United States and the Middle East is probably the most volatile and absorbing relationship the U.S. is involved in today. Prior to 1941, however, the U.S. preferred to limit its involvement with the Middle East to launching ministries of evangelism and social welfare across the region and investing in the pumping, refining, and transportation of oil to Western markets. It was not until World War II and the Cold War, when the threat of losing control of the region and therefore losing its natural resources, military bases, and lines of communication arose, that U.S. officials were motivated to take a greater interest. Since then, the increasing level of violence in the area has led to an increase in U.S. involvement, which―in most cases―has been far from positive: the Iran hostage crisis of 1979-1981, the Persian Gulf War of 1990-1991, and the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003.The Historical Dictionary of United States-Middle East Relations is an essential tool to understanding how diplomatic relations deteriorated to this point. This volume concentrates on the history of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and the Middle East from the onset of the Cold War up to the present. This is accomplished through a chronology, an introduction, a bibliography, an appendix, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on the countries involved, significant events, major crises, important figures, controversial issues, and doctrines and policies. For scholars, historians, and students interested in the diplomacy of these two regions, this is an essential reference.

Consisting of 192 Member States, the United Nations was founded in 1945 to maintain international peace and security; to develop friendly relations among nations based on the respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples; to achieve international cooperation in solving problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character; and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.Just how successful the UN has been in maintaining these goals is covered in the new edition of the Historical Dictionary of the United Nations. Author Jacques Fomerand provides a comprehensive dictionary of nearly 900 cross-referenced entries on the UN's various committees and organizations, its leaders, terms, policies, and major events in which the UN took part. Supplementing the dictionary entries are a chronology, an introduction, a bibliography, photographs, a list of acronyms and abbreviations used in the dictionary, and appendixes, which include a reproduction of the UN's Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as a list of the Member States and when they joined.

Product Description: With 110 million members worldwide, Baptists are surpassed only by Roman Catholic and Orthodox groups as the largest segment of Christians. The term "Baptist" has its origins with the Anabaptists, the denomination historically linked to the English Separatist movement of the 16th century...read more

Product Description: Useful as a source of information on Zionism, its founders and leaders, its various strands and organizations, major events in its struggle and its present status. (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: The archipelago forming the Republic of Cape Verde consists of 21 islands and inlets, 9 of which are inhabited. First discovered by Portuguese sailors around 1455, the islands were set up as a strategically secure base for trade along the West African coast and became stopover points for such famous navigators as Vasco Da Gama and Christopher Columbus...read more

Product Description: The most important bilateral relationship in Asia since the end of World War II is assuredly between the United States and Japan. Despite the geographical and cultural differences between these two nations, as well as the bitterness leftover from the war, an amicable and prosperous relationship has developed between the two countries boasting the world's largest economies...read more

Product Description: The French Revolution remains the most examined event and period in world history. Most historians would argue that it was the first "modern" revolution, an event so momentous that it changed the very meaning of the word revolution to its current connotation of a political and/or social upheaval that marks a decisive break with the past, moving the society in a forward or progressive direction...read more

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Product Description: The events of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, now called the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, changed forever the religious and political history of the West. This Historical Dictionary provides a one-volume, balanced alternative to the overwhelming amounts of literature on the events of the time and the theological and political debates that spawned those events...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Provides concise entries on the parties, major and minor, past and present, and those who ran them. This includes all of the presidents and vice presidents, whomever won presidential votes in the electoral college, congressional party leaders, and national party chairs...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)